Friday, February 18, 2011

The smell of the house after you roast some coffee. For those of you who do not roast your own coffee, it is an interesting process. Coffee starts out as green beans, kind of a dark olive green. During the early part of the roasting cycle, the scent is similar to fresh cut grass. As the roasting continues, the beans turn yellowish, not bright, but pale and muted, with not much of a change in scent. As it continues, the beans begin to brown, at which point the beans develop a chocolaty and nutty scent. As they continue to roast and become more/darker brown, they take on the scent of brownies cooking in the oven. Then, as they hit the coffee stage as we know it, you get an actual coffee scent.

The aroma is wonderful, the mix of nutty/chocolaty/coffee goodness that lasts for days. And fortunately for me, I do very small batches so every three days or I get to roast more. I feel sorry for the rest of you!

My current batch is some Costa Rican San Marcos that I have from Burman Coffee Traders, where I get all of my coffee. If you roast your own you should check them out. They give a review for their coffees, they have excellent prices, and if you live somewhat close by the shipping can’t be beat!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

I have been a bit down as of late, as well may be obvious from my lack of posts over the past year or so. I have also noticed a pattern to my behavior that has been repeating once again. As I get down, I tend to withdraw and stop doing things I enjoy. Such things, of course, only feed the cycle.

So as of now, I am trying to break that cycle. I have gone so far as to pin my blog writer to my Start Menu, so at least it has presence, and with luck, I will begin to hit it more often.

There are many things that I have enjoyed that I have let slip. Heck, just about everything. My Aikido is almost nonexistent at this time. My Zen time is once a week and that is not even on a cushion. My poker has been far reduced, much too reduced for a game I enjoy so much. Lastly, I was one of the top 10 posters to the How To Geek forums once upon a time.

I recently started to play more of the Poker Stars 50/50 games. They are nice Sit-an-Go’s if you do not want to spend too much time (or have other things to do but still want to play) on a game. I like them better than the Double or Nothing games (that are now being eliminated), because it adds a bit of depth to the game. Now players are not just trying to make it to the top 50%, they also want to have the highest chip percentage to increase their win amount. It does change the play dynamics of the game (relative to the Double or Nothing format).

I have also begun to post to the forums again at How to Geek. I must admit that I have not been keeping myself as up-to-date on current technology as I used to, but damn, it feels good to be helping people in the forums again, so there is some incentive to start keeping up on technology again.

The ‘difficult’ ones are getting back into both Aikido and Zen. In Aikido, all I need to do is get suited up and be prepared to have my ass slammed six inches into the mat. It’s easy. In Zen, all I need to do is get suited up and sit on a cushion until it sinks six inches into it. It’s easy. But as ‘they’ say, Mind Makes; and mine just will not shut up long enough for me to do the simple things, such as to step on the mat or enter the dharma room. So sad for something so simple.

But now some of ‘they’ have seen it, so now I have to act…To be continued….

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

It seems that it’s been 18 years or so since I have posted here. If anyone still reads this, particularly poker people, here is a low-limit perspective of PokerStars 50/50 games.

Most of the poker players I have played with are well above what I can do. My very first game was a WWdN game that was a charity event, but led to the WWdN series on Stars.

Eventually that game died off and The Mookie evolved on FullTilt. It is now The Mookie/Dank, and will eventually become The Dank. Many thanks to BuddyDank, Joannda, and everyone else who has put forth their effort to keep this game going.

Anyhow, where was I, oh yes, low limit Stars 50/50 games. I doubt I spend more than 10 hours a month playing poker. I am a recreational player, but not one who does not study or pay attention.

Rather recently, I started playing some of the PokerStars 50/50 games, and all I can say, is that if you have a bit of knowledge of position, cards relative to position, and a fair conception of the math, you can do well.

More often than not, I am in the top two of these games. If you have a decent understanding of the game, do not want to spend hours and hours (hopefully) in a tourney or ring game, but want some experience, this may be a decent place to start.

I think I like this format better than the previous Double or Nothing. In the old format, as soon as 1/2 were gone you doubled up. Now, once 1/2 are gone, you recover your buy-in, and the rest is based on your stack. For me, that has always worked out to my benefit.

Who knows, maybe one day I may actually be a name of note at the Mookie/Dank!!